主观幸福感代际传递：有调节的中介效应

采用问卷法考察父母的主观幸福感与子女的主观幸福感的代际传递效应,同时探讨亲子沟通的中介作用和子女情感自主性的调节作用。结果发现：（1）父母的主观幸福感显著预测初中生子女的主观幸福感;（2）亲子沟通在父母的主观幸福感影响初中生子女的主观幸福感中起部分中介作用;（3）子女的情感自主性可以调节亲子沟通对初中生的子女主观幸福感的影响,情感自主性低的子女的主观幸福感更容易受到亲子沟通的影响,而情感自主性高的个体则会减弱亲子沟通的作用。     

自私行为的传递效应

自私的传递效应指遭遇他人自私对待的个体也自私地对待无辜他人的现象。在这个过程中, 示范性规范、心理权利起着中介作用, 个体的公正敏感性、道德认同, 以及情境中的道德凸显和匿名性起着调节作用。已有研究多关注个体如何惩罚与报复直接伤害自己的自私者, 较少关注自私行为的受害者如何对待无辜的第三方。未来研究可关注他人自私如何通过影响个体的认知, 如普遍信任和道德判断, 进而影响其对待无辜者的态度与行为, 并且澄清情绪及共情在其中的作用。     

Zika virus and pregnant women: A psychological approach

Zika virus presents risk of physical harm to pregnant women, but the fear of infection is also affecting women around the world. There is a gap in the research on Zika virus in the areas involving the impact on the psychosocial well-being of pregnant women. Therefore, this study is aimed at the investigation of the psychosocial adjustment of pregnant women to the risks of Zika virus infection during pregnancy. We investigated 14 pregnant women who were classified in three different groups: six in the first trimester, five in the second trimester and three in the third trimester, aged from 28 to 40 years (33.43 ± 3.76 years). Content analysis was used to interpret data. Our results show that the psychosocial adjustment of participants was significantly negative and included five aspects: (1) negative feelings, (2) changes in family planning, (3) adopting new customs (avoiding places of risk, use of specific clothes and use of repellent), (4) changed attitudes regarding body image and (5) feeling of external demand regarding prevention. The fear of Zika virus infection and all its associated risks have a negative biopsychosocial impact on the pregnant women in this study.     

Indentation behaviour of ion-irradiated X-750 Ni-based superalloy

The mechanical properties of an ion-irradiated Ni-based superalloy have been evaluated using nano-indentation hardness tests. A high-energy Ni ion beam was employed for irradiation at room temperature up to different doses. Nano-indentation tests were carried out in the range of 100–1000 nm to measure hardness changes of the experimental alloy. The results show softening of the irradiated material compared to the un-irradiated material, with the softening being more pronounced at the higher dose. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy characterisation reveals that γ′-precipitate instability (disordering/dissolution) is the main reason for the softening behaviour and this outweighs the hardening effect of irradiation-induced defects.     

Thomas: The Apostle of Scientists

Richard Dawkins suggests that the way “doubting Thomas” demanded evidence for Jesus’ resurrection should endear him to scientists. A close reading of Chapter 20 of John’s Gospel suggests that Thomas’ confession of Jesus’ divinity does indeed resonate with how scientists make progress, but not because he demanded evidence. Rather, the similarity lies in the way he went beyond the immediate evidence to reach a bold conclusion, the implications of which took a lifetime to work out. A comparison with the way J. J. Thomson discovered the first sub-atomic particle, the electron, shows that this is also how breakthroughs in science happen.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: Shattered Subjectivity and Relational Freedom

This article considers a relational perspective regarding the intergenerational transmission of the trauma of violence. The psychoanalytic literature suggests that parents often transmit the trauma of violence to their children in the form of projected nameless dread and unmentalized states that interfere with the children's emotional needs and support. The offspring absorbs the trauma, which manifests itself in the form of disorganized attachment and in turn leads to the development of a predisposition toward cocoon-like dissociative states. This study considers two clinical cases that examine the interpersonal dynamics of dissociative processes. The therapist's reverie about his ancestors' survival of depersonalizing violence and Winnicott's concept of the survival and the use of the object help the therapist find his or her identity and gain the relational freedom needed to overcome the dissociative state, thereby becoming an alive subject who is able to help the child patient.     

Sex differences in face processing: Are women less lateralized and faster than men?

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of sex on hemispheric asymmetry and cooperation in a face recognition task. We used a masked priming paradigm in which the prime stimulus was centrally presented; it could be a bisymmetric face or a hemi-face in which facial information was presented in the left or the right visual field and projected to the right or the left hemisphere. The target stimulus was always a bisymmetric face presented centrally. Faces were selected from Minear and Park’s (2004) database. Fifty-two right-handed students (26 men, 26 women) participated in this experiment, in which accuracy (percentage of correct responses) and reaction times (RTs in ms) were measured. Although accuracy data showed that the percentage of correct recognition – when prime and target matched – was equivalent in men and women, men’s RTs were longer than women’s in all conditions. Accuracy and RTs showed that men are more strongly lateralized than women, with right hemispheric dominance. These results suggest that men are as good at face recognition as women, but there are functional differences in the two sexes. The findings are discussed in terms of functional cerebral networks distributed over both hemispheres and of interhemispheric transmission.     

Religious authority and the transmission of abstract god concepts

According to the Standard Model account of religion, religious concepts tend to conform to “minimally counterintuitive” schemas. Laypeople may, to varying degrees, verbally endorse the abstract doctrines taught by professional theologians. But, outside the Sunday school exam room, the implicit representations that tend to guide people’s everyday thinking, feeling, and behavior are about minimally counterintuitive entities. According to the Standard Model, these implicit representations are the essential thing to be explained by the cognitive science of religion (CSR). It is argued here that this theoretical orientation of mainstream CSR misses a whole dimension of religiosity—the acceptance of certain religious authorities, that is, the acceptance of other people’s superior expertise. Average believers (especially in doctrinal traditions) tend to accept the authority of religious experts who espouse highly counterintuitive ideas that they (the laypeople) understand in a distorted form, if at all. These highly counterintuitive ideas are culturally successful because laypeople see them as being justified by people they have reason to regard as epistemic authorities. The tendency for people to endorse (without fully understanding) highly counterintuitive religious ideas espoused by intellectuals may explain parallels in the development of separate traditions (e.g., Judaism and Hinduism), as religious philosophers follow parallel lines of reasoning.